The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and relevant links.

Visibility in the Canary Islands and Saharan Dust

On June 24, 2012, a huge amount of Saharan dust was blown westwards from Africa toward Spain's Canary Islands. In this part of the world, this hot, dusty wind is called a Calima. The amount of dust in this storm exceeded the threshold accepted for telescope operation at Teide Observatory on Tenerife by a factor of about eight. Mount Teide (12,198 ft or 3,718 m) which is about 8 mi (13 km) from the observatory wasn't visible at all until June 28. The dust was accompanied by a rise in the temperature. At an elevation of 7,875 ft (2,400 m), the temperature reached 86 F (30 C) during the day and remained above 65 F (18 C) during the night. Only slowly did the dust settle or disperse. The four images above show the improvement of visibility from June 27 until clear conditions returned on July 2.